The ingredients to a city.

Oreo · Jun 29, 2012

Hi, I'm currently prepping a campaign that will, at some point take place in Absalom (On the Pathfinder Campaign Setting of Golarion). I'm no stranger to building cities from scratch, or stealing ideas from others but I find that, with the huge size of Absalom I am having more difficulty - it mentions within the Absalom guide that each district is, in essence, a city in-of-itself.

My question(s) are; Are there any maps of each district of Absalom? I've only been able to find the Ivy District, and considering that it is the smallest district, it's the one I was least worried about.

Secondly, what is a good and easy to use map creation tool for someone that has the drawing capabilities of a monkey with alzheimers

Thirdly, is there any city generating document that goes into detail about what buildings you should have within cities, depending on what type of city it is, and how many of such, etc.

Thank you for any help

Oreo

Evenglare · Jun 29, 2012

I second the map tool monkey thing.

Traveon Wyvernspur · Jun 29, 2012

There's this site, which has a few detailed maps of Absalom. This is a less detailed map, looks like someone drew it by hand. Here's more info on Absalom if you didn't already have it and a wiki. There's the Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom for sale on the Paizo site for $17.99 (print) or $12.99 (pdf), but I just looked at the whole book and there are no more detailed maps in it, just a lot of information on the city. I did a search on the Paizo site for "Absalom" and it returned these results. Note that most of them are modules and PFS scenarios, I have the Slave Pits of Absalom and the only map in there is a tavern for a fight in the small adventure. Here's a discussion much like what you are talking about from an old Paizo forum thread. Here's Beldrin's Bluff from the Absalom.

That's the extent of my Google-fu as I don't see any other maps on Absalom either, maybe the resources I linked you will be able to give you a better understanding of the city and its districts so you can run your campaign there.

I typed in "city generator" in Google and found this, this, this, and this EnWorld thread on city generators.

Lwaxy · Jun 29, 2012

Nope, no other maps. I believe it is kept deliberately vague so GMs can fill it with their own content.

If you generally like urban play, I recommend "Seven Cities" from Atlas Games. I am about to build a campaign only on that book, but the value for using it in other cities is, IMO, great. There are simple maps for buildings, NPC descriptions and plot hooks, and it also explains what you'd find in a city of what size. Also helpful was "Cities & Settlements" from Troll Lord Games.

LostSoul · Jun 30, 2012

Check out this blog post: Playing D&D With Porn Stars: Urbancrawl Rules For Slacker DMs

It has a pretty workable method for city crawls. It's very similar to what you get in Vornheim, though I'd recommend picking up Vornheim anyway. There are three good adventures in it and, more importantly, a massive amount of excellent random tables (though they push towards weird fantasy).

Scott DeWar · Jun 30, 2012

Lwaxy said:
Nope, no other maps. I believe it is kept deliberately vague so GMs can fill it with their own content.

If you generally like urban play, I recommend "Seven Cities" from Atlas Games. I am about to build a campaign only on that book, but the value for using it in other cities is, IMO, great.

I have that same book and concur fully with its assessed value. there was also another book - world builder's guide. I do not recall if it was 2.x or 3.x as my copy was packed earlier this week and won't be unpacked until after July.

Oreo · Jun 30, 2012

Thank you for the input, advice and help. 'tis muchly appreciated. I've managed to get together alot of stuff and I'm going to avoid Absalom in favour of something a little less grand and daunting for the meantime. In the spirit of trying to let the players decide where their mood takes them I have compiled a huge amount of stuff on Absalom and I think it'll suffice without district specific maps.

Again, thanks!

gamerprinter · Jul 3, 2012

I build my cities from scratch, including the map, but then I'm a professional fantasy cartographer (cities are still a pain to map, even for a pro). I designed the map for Kasai, the imperial capital of Minkai, of Paizo's Dragon Empire. The map exists in Jade Regent #6 The Empty Throne.

First I decide what kind of government (whose in charge) and how do they maintain power. Then I decide which churches exist and of them who are the power mongers. Then I decide what is the majority population of the city, and who are the lesser populations. Then I decide on the geography - where is the city located.

Once all that is decided I then work on factions, and the complex relationships between such factions. To me factions and major NPCs are the major factors that drive an urban campaign, much more so than geography, population and architecture.

Once all that is factored in, I create a gazetteer to drop hints of what is going on in various parts of the city, and which factions are involved.

For mapping, if you can handle CAD (I can't) there's always ProFantasy, and it's accessory, City Designer. Any of the various random city generators is great for giving you a direction, but in of itself, are generally poor to accurately represent most city designs. I sometimes use one as an idea generator, but never as the final mapping tool. MapTools, described above is really a free Virtual Terrain Map, but does have built in mapping tools for quick and dirty maps. Since I'm a graphic designer by day, I rely on Photoshop, GIMP, and Xara Designer Pro for my mapping tools, but then this wouldn't apply to you (the non-artist), but I wouldn't use anything else.

You might visit the Cartographers' Guild for tips on designing your own maps, the best mapping tools, tutorials for using such mapping tools, as well as a huge selection of created maps ready to use in your own campaign. I'm a member - it's the best site out there for game mapping.